Reviews of Club nights, CDs, books ... anything folk is welcome.

Sessionfest 2010 - Bargoed House - Mini Reveiw

What a wonderful time was had at "Sessionfest” this year. As day visitors (here and there) we were particularly impressed with the bonding and development which occurred from the Saturday to the Sunday.

We were particularly impressed with the happiness throughout the "Gospel Service” and the enjoyment everybody had (performers and audience) – it was a stunning effort.
We’ve included a couple of "pics”.

Roz and Jeff

And When Judy Sings:   Judy Small in Concert
An interview with Judy Small at our Oct 2007 concert, by Debbi Long
    

On Sat Oct 20th the Folk Club hosted a packed concert for one of the deities of Australian folk, Judy Small. The night celebrated the 25th anniversary of the release of her first album "A Natural Selection”.  Judy was wonderfully supported by the entertaining and quirky Rising Damper, and a guest spot from 2007 ABC Newcastle Music Award (Folk) winner Grace Turner.

For 25 years commentators have been waxing lyrical about Judy Small’s soaring vocals, the piercing political commentary of her lyrics, and her warm and witty stage repartee.  She was introduced to the audience as a legend and an icon of Australian folk, and she did not disappoint the many fans who turned out to see her.  Coaldust spoke to Judy Small before the concert.

CD:  Welcome to Newcastle, it’s great to have you here.
JS:    It’s wonderful to be here.  I was last in 1992 - it’s been far too long!

CD:  You grew up on the North Coast, didn’t you?
JS:    Yes, I did, I grew up in Coffs.  I’m a North Coast girl originally.

CD:  One of the things I’ve always liked about your music is the way you manage to kick arse with such complexity.  You don’t write "single issue songs”, there is always an intertwining of issues.  In the eighties you tied in Indigenous rights with the environment and our relationship with the US, and of course in a number of your songs you articulated one of the most silenced aspects of war, the impact of war on women.
JS:    Kick arse with complexity – what a nice way to put it! I hadn’t thought of it like that.  In a way we were all doing it in the eighties.   I have some single issue songs, but not many. I guess that because of the way I see the world.  I see things as social interactions, pieces of a broader canvas, not just individual parts.

CD:  What are the things that get you angry now?
JS:    John Howard gets me VERY angry now ... and that’s not a single issue!  The attitude of white Australia to Aboriginal people still gets me angry.  "The Stolen Gems”, my song about the stolen generation, reflects that.  I don’t write as much as I used to.  I used to write full time, but now I’m a lawyer.  It’s a very different world for me, and I don’t get time [to do as much writing].  It really is true that that kind of creativity is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.  I just don’t get time for the perspiration any more.  While there’s still lots of things to write about, I find I’ve often got a song already.  I find that issues will come up and I’ll think, oh, I’ve already got a song for that!  The last two songs I’ve written were about control orders and the war in Iraq.  With the control orders, thinking about the things that I’ve done in my life, if those laws had been in then, there’s a number of things that I could have been taken away for.  The song about Iraq is about the women, because that’s what I do.  It’s about the wife of an SAS soldier.  The album Mosaic has songs on it about everything from a woman escaping from a child molesting husband to a song for my father.  I’m a folk musician, I write about my times.  It’s what we do.  People say "why aren’t you still writing about nuclear war?”  Well, that’s because it’s actually not going to up in the next ten minutes.  And we thought it was in the mid eighties.  You know, it was important.

CD:  Whereas now aboriginal kids are dying …
JS:    Yeah, you know, you write about whatever’s going on.

CD:  The progression from the type of music you write to working as a lawyer seems like a natural progression.
JS:    I think so. I see it as different corners of the same field. I’m heading towards the same goal in both jobs.  So I don’t work for a big commercial law firm, I manage the family law department for Victoria Legal Aid.  And that’s all the same sort of thing for me.  I think my working life has all been about that, it’s all been about social justice.

CD:  Has the transition been smooth for you?
JS:    I find the transition actually quite difficult, especially things like tonight.  Yesterday I was at work.  On Monday I’ll be back at work.  I’ve actually found a way of dealing with it, which is going to sound terrible, but I listen to myself on my iPod, on the plane, and that gets me back into where I need to be to do a concert.  And then when I get home I’ll look at my emails and that will get me back into work mode.

CD:  [Commenting on Judy’s elegant outfit] I must admit when I saw you tonight I thought "oooohhh, …. she’s looking more corporate than she used to look”
JS:    Compared to when I wore overalls in the 80s?  Yes, those days are gone!  I started thinking .. I guess I’ve been dressing like this since about the early 90s.  I sort of decided my music is folk music, but audience aren’t all folk audiences, and bugger it, every
audience is worth dressing up for!  At festivals I’ll wear jeans and t-shirts, but for folk clubs and concerts I think it’s worth getting
dressed up.

She got dressed up for us, and delivered to Newcastle classic Judy Small: she told us stories, she sang us songs. We laughed, we
sang along, and most of us choked up and shed a tear at least once.  And as always, she made us think about our world a little more deeply. 
 
To celebrate her 25 years of recording, Judy has released the double album "Judy Smalll: Live at the Artery”.  To get hold of this or
other of her albums, you can visit her website www.judysmall.com.au